Lost Mine of Phandelver - Session 8 - VenomFang Rises

The next day after resting, the party partially untied Glasstaff to feed him, and then secured him again.  

They continued to explore and found a gorge area with the BugBears clearing boulders from some sort of cave-in that had occurred.  

The party rained arrows and javelins down onto the BugBears and were able to dispatch them, while Marigold did suffer a javelin wound.  

The party climbed down into the gorge and Marigold noticed there was a crushed BugBear under the rocks, so they dug the body out, and Innil gained Gauntlets of Ogre Power from the crushed BugBear.

OneShoe was sent up the opposite cliff-face to scout out a small tunnel that headed to the East.  He returned and pointed out that the wave echoes were stronger from that direction, but that the tunnel was rather small and difficult to climb towards.  

The party decided to head South and found a large central room filled with the long-dead corpses of Dwarves and Orcs that had battled to the death in ages past.  This room was the central part of the mining operation and a large water-wheel, bellow, and blast furnace was present.  

At this point a FlameSkull appeared from the blast furnace and raised eight zombie dwarfs.  Reiner immediately turned undead on five of the zombies and the fight with the FlameSkull was on.  The monster shot fire rays to start the fight, but then launched a fireball into the party, doing severe damage to Marigold and some to the other party members.  

Despite this onslaught, the FlameSkull was eventually defeated, along with all of the zombies, including the ones that had initially fled.  Reiner consecrated the blast furnace and the FlameSkull was banished for good.

The party then travelled to the NorthEast, in search of the booming wave echoes, and came across a large body of water that caused the sound every few minutes.  

A young green Dragon arose from the depths and announced that he was actually the boss, the "Black Spider," and scolded the party for entering his lair.  He also revealed that he was the cause of the fate of Innil's village and mocked her tragedy. 

He told them to gather in front of him, closer and closer, to plead for their lives, which they did in an attempt to talk their way out if the perilous situation, but VenomFang suddenly used his breath weapon and downed Innil and Reiner.  Luckily, Innil was able to use her last-ditch healing feat she had gained at fourth-level, and recovered some health instantly upon reaching zero hit points.  She was able to cure Reiner while VenomFang roared in laughter and swam away.

The battered party limped away from the devastating attack of VenomFang and decided to seek reinforcements and a better plan of attack, now that they knew their true adversary.